Stay
by Squid Lee Smith
Summary: ItachiOC: When he left, I didn't know what I was going to do. I hardly knew him and yet I was so attached. I felt alone and hated without him near me. My only friend, the stotic prodigy turned missing nin, Uchiha Itachi.


"Hokari..."

* * *

I felt tears sting my eyes yet again. His voice, his calm, smooth voice haunted me still. I hear it while I lay in bed, I hear it in my sleep. I hear it. All night. I want to forget him, forget the boy that brought me such joy, and such pain. If I wasn't given to them to take care of, to the Uchiha family, I would have never befriended him. If I had refused to live with them, I wouldn't have ever known that murderer. I wouldn't be lying here thinking about him, wondering where he is, what he is doing. I closed my eyes and envisioned his face, his onyx gaze and that smirk he always wore when he was near me. I remembered the last words he spoke to me, I grasped onto that thought and drifted to sleep. _I hope you keep your promise, Uchiha Itachi. _

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"Isn't that the demon girl?" I heard the woman a few feet away whisper. I am not a demon, damn it. I sighed. I have a name, don't they know that?

"Isn't she staying with Uchiha Fugaku? Poor man." I gave a slight growl, glaring at the gossiping women. Their eyes widened, they walked away quickly. I sighed again. I continued my trek to the Uchiha compound. I reached the entrance, immediately sensing a familiar chakra.

"I know you are there, Itachi." I said, hearing his soft footsteps behind me. His smooth voice reached my ears.

"You are late for training." I trained with Itachi every chance we got, my goal was to become ANBU by the time I turn 13 years old, just like Itachi.

"Forgive me, I was talking with the Hokage." The Hokage was a nice man, he never treated me like a demon, and he gave me a home with a the Uchiha's after my own family was killed.

"Its alright, lets go." I turned to him, my strange purple eyes meeting his beautiful yet menacing sharingan stare. I walked up to him, stopping next to him. He nodded and we walked to the training grounds.

Itachi and I stood a few meters apart, getting into fighting stances.

"No holding back." I said to Itachi, he nodded. I reached into my shuriken pouch, pulling out two kunai. I hid the second one. I threw the weapon at Itachi's right shoulder, knowing he would dodge to the left. I threw the hidden kunai to the left, it sank into Itachi's chest. I smirked as the clone popped off. I closed my eyes, searching for the real Itachi.

'Behind me, 9 meters' I sent 3 shuriken in his direction. Itachi jumped out of the tree he was hiding in, he automatically sent two shuriken my way, I dodged easily. Itachi came at me, kunai in hand. I jumped back into the trees, creating a clone for Itachi to fight. I hid on a branch a ways away from Itachi and my clone. Itachi managed to stab the clone with a kunai. It popped off. Itachi looked around, his sharingan eyes settled on my hiding place. I made another clone and sent it out to Itachi. I jumped to another tree, to the left of Itachi. I watched the fight, my clone sent a shuriken at Itachi, hitting his stomach. Itachi's clone popped off. I frowned.

'Where are you?' I thought, I released the clone and it disappeared. I closed my eyes, looking for Itachi's presence. I gasped when I found him. A hand covered my mouth, another grabbed both my hands and pinned them behind me. Itachi's voice reached my ears.

"To easy." I smirked under his hand. I suddenly disappeared. Itachi looked around for me, a look of confusion on his face. I smiled, right where I want him. I reappeared behind him, he tried to turn to me but before he could, I turned him around and pinned him to a tree with a kunai to his neck. Itachi frowned. I smiled, knowing I had won.

"You're getting better every day. You still have to improve in genjutsu, though." Itachi said as I removed the kunai and unpinned him from the tree. He jumped back to the ground, I was about to jump out after him when Sasuke ran into the training grounds.

"Nii-san!" 7 year old Sasuke yelled waving at his elder brother. Sasuke skidded to a halt in front of Itachi, smiling big. I dropped from the tree, landing next to Itachi. Sasuke's bright smile faded. He frowned at me. Itachi had once said the reason Sasuke doesn't like me is because I get all of his attention. Which isn't true in the least, Itachi pays most of his attention to himself. Sasuke ignored me and turned back to Itachi, the smile back on his face.

"Nii-san, will you help me train?" Sasuke asked hopefully. Itachi sighed, Shaking his head.

"I'm sorry Sasuke, I'm training with Hokari today." Sasuke frowned deeply and turned to glare at me.

"Why? Shes never going to be any good!" I frowned, glaring back at the small boy.

"She beat me today, Sasuke." Sasuke's eyes widened, looking at me, surprised. I smirked.

"I will train with you when I have time, Sasuke." Itachi said.

"Fine! I'm going home." With that, Sasuke ran in the direction of the Uchiha Compound.

"I still don't get why he hates me so much." I said, looking to Itachi.

"Because you have me all to yourself." Itachi stated, chuckling softly.

"I do?" I asked, amused. Itachi sighed.

"I train with you every time I don't have a mission, much more than I train by myself or with Sasuke." Itachi sat against the tree behind us, I plopped down next to him.

"Huh, I guess I do hog you, ne?" Itachi gave another weak chuckle.

"I don't mind it." He said, closing his eyes and resting his hes against the tree.

"Tired?" I asked.

"No, resting my eyes." I smiled.

"Don't fall asleep, I would be tempted to draw on your face." I laughed lightly.

"I wouldn't do that If I were you." Itachi said, amused. He opened his, now onyx, eyes.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"I would get my revenge, and you wouldn't like it." He said smirking.

"I admit, I'm scared." Itachi's smirk turned into a very small smile. I felt another presence, or rather two weak ones. A couple of genin girls walked into the training fields. They giggled and blushed when they looked at Itachi, then glared daggers at me. Itachi turned over and whispered in my ear.

"Lets go." I looked up at the two girls, they had a look of shock. I smirked. I loved messing with people like this. Itachi pulled back, I leaned forward, putting my hand on his chest.

"Or we could tease them, it'll be fun." Itachi smirked, knowing exactly what I meant. We had broken the hearts of many Itachi fangirls by acting like a couple. We never really took it very far, seeing as they stormed off before drastic measures had to be taken. Itachi put his hand over mine, pulling it from his chest and draping my arm over his neck. He put his arm around my waist, pulling me closer. Usually, the fan girls would have had enough and stormed off by now, but the girls were still in the grounds. Itachi leaned in and whispered.

"You want to?" He asked. I blushed furiously before nodding slightly. Itachi pulled away from my ear and put his hand on the back of my head gently. He started to lean in, his eyes closed already. I hesitantly closed my own. Our faces got closer and closer until...

The fangirls stomped away, furious that they just saw Itachi _almost _kiss another girl.

Itachi and I let go of one another, going back to our original position on the tree. He looked over at me, smirking that evil little smirk.

"You're blushing." I covered my face with my hands.

"So?" I crossed my arms.

"Its funny." Itachi said, shrugging.

"Is not. I almost just lost my first kiss to _you!_" I said.

"It was your idea."

"The kiss was your idea." I stated. Itachi remained quiet for a while.

"We should go back home." Itachi stood up and offered me his hand, I took it and he pulled my up softly. We walked back to the house in silence.

As soon as we got to the house, Itachi went straight for his room. He never was very social with his family. I walked into the kitchen, seeing Itachi's mom, Mikoto, making dinner.

"Would you like some help, Mikoto?" I asked politely. She turned to me and smiled,

"Yes, please Hokari, will you make some onigiri?" I nodded, working on the task silently.

After a while, Mikoto asked how my training was going.

"Very well, Itachi is an excellent teacher. I'm learning really fast and hes really nice, once you get past the passive exterior he puts on." Mikoto giggle slightly.

"Are you developing a crush, Hokari-chan?" I blushed.

"Itachi is my friend and mentor. Our relationship will remain that and only that." I attempted to sound professional. Mikoto frowned a bit.

"That boy, he needs to stop being so grown up, hes only 13 years old." I sighed

"I agree." Mikoto smiled and told me that dinner was done and to go get Itachi.

I treaded softly in the hallway on my way to Itachi's room. I knocked on his door lightly. I waited a few seconds before he came to the door and opened it. He had an emotionless expression on his face until he saw me, then the corner of his mouth raised in a tiny smirk.

"Dinner!" I said, grinning broadly, causing Itachi's smirk to grow. He nodded, coming out of his room and shutting the door behind him. His emotionless mask returned when we reached the dinner table. Itachi and I sat down next to each other, Mikoto looked at me and winked, and for once I was able to hide my blush.

Dinner was silent other that a little bit of small talk. When Itachi was finished, he excused himself and headed straight back to his bedroom. When everyone else was finished, I volunteered to help with the dishes, since I knew no one else would. I dried and put away the dishes, comfortable with the silence until Mikoto broke it.

"I think you and Itachi should spend the day together tomorrow, without training." I thought about it for a couple seconds.

"I doubt he would agree to that, but its worth a try." Mikoto smiled again. We finished the dishes and she sent me to Itachi's room to discuss her idea. I walked through the hallway, stopping in front of his door, I held up my fist and was about to knock when the door opened. Itachi looked down at me through dark eyes. Inside them was an emotion I couldn't quite place, he looked almost guilty. Despite my worry about the look in his eyes I smiled and spoke.

"Hi, Itachi. I wanted to talk to you, can I come in?" I asked.

Itachi's only answer was turning around and walking into his dark room, leaving the door open so I could come in, I shut the door and waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.

I have only been in Itachi's room a few times, it was plain, very organized and clean. Itachi was sitting on his bed, starring at the wall. I walked over, sitting a couple feet from him.

"Why do you keep it so dark in here? I can hardly see a thing." I said, looking at his face. The Uchiha Itachi I knew would have given me a smart remark, then smirk. But he just kept starring at the wall behind my head. I decided that he was just being antisocial, so I didn't say anything.

"Mikoto wants you and I to spend the day together tomorrow, to give each of us a break from training." I said, looking at Itachi hopefully. He didn't say anything. I waited a minute or so before sighing and getting up.

"Just as I thought." I muttered, taking a step towards the door.

"I'll go." I turned around quickly. "I like the idea." I grinned, he was still looking at the wall. I was surprised that he was actually going to do something other that a mission or training. I walked back over to the bed, went behind him and put my hands on his shoulders, I leaned my head down next to his face, he tensed as I brushed my lips on his cheek softly. I pulled my head back to his ear, whispering a thank you. I turned, walked out of the door and shutting it quietly behind me. I treaded towards my room, the small guest room, thinking about my actions. _'What on earth came over me?' _I wish I would have stayed for his reaction, but of course I got scared and fled. I changed into sleeping clothes and went to bed, replaying the situation in my mind. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, but I closed my eyes anyway.

Several hours passed, I figured it was probably about 5 in the morning. I sighed, getting out of bed to take a shower.

I stepped out of the bathroom in fresh clothes, black shorts and a white tank top. I left my headband and gloves off, since I wasn't training. I combed my quickly drying red hair and let it fall past my shoulders. I closed the door as quietly as possible so I wouldn't wake anyone. Another door opened and shut, I looked up to see Itachi had just left his room and was looking at me.

"Good morning, Itachi-kun." I said quietly, I still didn't know what his thought on my actions last night were.

"Morning." He lifted the corner of his mouth a bit. I took that as a sign he wasn't angry and asked

"What should we do today?" I walked up to him, he shrugged his shoulders. I thought for a minute, not sure what I wanted to do either.

"How about breakfast? I'll pay." Itachi said, I grinned, breakfast sounded good.

"You don't have to pay, I have mon-"

"Don't worry about it." He cut me off. I didn't argue and waked into the living room, where we discovered Mikoto and Fugaku were awake. Itachi ignored them and headed to the front door to put on his sandals, I followed him, slipping mine on as well.

"Going to train?" Fugaku asked.

"No, I am taking Hokari-chan to breakfast." Itachi said. Mikoto smiled at me and I smiled back. Fugaku looked away from us, while Mikoto told us to have fun and waved goodbye. I waved back as Itachi and I walked out the door.

"Where to?" I asked, he smirked.

"You'll see, Kari-chan." I blushed at the nickname, then frowned. Surprises weren't really my thing.

"Itachi..."

"You'll like it." He looked down at me. I sighed.

"Fine."

Itachi began to walk and I followed, we received stares from almost every person we passed, after all, he was the Uchiha prodigy and I was the demon-girl. I began feeling uncomfortable with all the stares, there seemed to be more than normal. Itachi noticed and grabbed my hand, silently comforting me. We reached the restaurant and walked in. We were seated and handed menus. Both of us ordered tea and a small bowl of rice.

"Thank you again, Ita-kun." I said, using the nickname that I bestowed upon him a couple months ago.

"Thank you for asking me to come, Kari-chan." He actually gave a small smile instead of a smirk. We sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, enjoying our breakfast and each others company.

"Tell me the truth, Itachi." I started. Itachi looked up. "You let me win yesterday, didn't you?" Itachi smirked again.

"If I won all the time, you would become discouraged and quit." He said, taking a sip of tea.

"So am I actually making any improvement?" I asked. He nodded.

"Yes, you are. Your taijutsu is excellent and your chakra control is almost as good as my own."

"I see, so are we going to work on genjutsu next?" I was still rusty in genjutsu, even though it was my clans specialty.

"Most likely. Are you done eating?" I nodded and we got up. Itachi payed the cashier and we left.

"Where do you want to go now?" He asked me. I simply shrugged.

"I have a place I want to take you, but its still to early." I thought for a second, where could he want to take me? I've seen all of the village...

"Lets go shopping for a while, then we can go to your 'secret place' Ita-kun." He nodded again, looking away. I inspected his face and noticed that there was a tiny hint of red in his cheeks.

"Your blushing, Ita-kun." I said, feeling triumphant that I made the aloof Uchiha flushed. Itachi looked down at me. Without warning, he pulled me closer and got inches away from my face, causing blood to rush and my cheeks to redden.

"So are you, Kari-chan." The smug look returned to his face as he backed away from me and resumed walking. _Stupid Itachi... This means war. _I thought, following him.

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Ugh, I'm so boring. Anyway. This is the long over-due first chapter of my ItachiOC story.

I'm switching things up and putting the disclaimer at the bottom. I DON'T OWN NARUTO.


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